The Persistance of Modernity in Japanese Film Scores – Part 2 (Ozu’s Floating Weeds)

Click for Part 1. Asian Values and Floating Weeds (Music by Saito)[i] Ozu’s later films are perhaps more grounded in the traditions of the Japanese family unit. Their drama comes from an apparent change in value systems (often a systematic change to more western values) or the opposite of this where characters are bound rigidly by Asian tradition and are desperate to escape. The music … Continue reading The Persistance of Modernity in Japanese Film Scores – Part 2 (Ozu’s Floating Weeds)

adamscovellMarch 29, 2013April 20, 20262 Comments

Film

Tess (1979) – Roman Polanski (BFI Release)

Roman Polanski’s period films don’t garner the same sort of critical attention that his genre films attain. The likes of Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and Chinatown (1974) no doubt feature more highly in film discussions than the likes of Oliver Twist (2005) or Tess (1979) yet the latter of these films presents an epic expanse that manages to still capture detail and beauty; a rare feat … Continue reading Tess (1979) – Roman Polanski (BFI Release)

adamscovellMarch 25, 2013April 20, 2026Leave a comment

Film, Film Music and Sound

The Persistence of Modernity in Japanese Film Scores – Part 1 (Ozu, Tradition and Silent Film)

The Persistence of Modernity in Japanese Film Scores. Introduction The scores and music produced for Japanese cinema highlight a constant change of values within the country; a relationship rarely mirrored so accurately in the cinema of anywhere else. Whereas the film scores of other countries can be looked at as a product of the trends and studio directions, the evolution and changes found within the … Continue reading The Persistence of Modernity in Japanese Film Scores – Part 1 (Ozu, Tradition and Silent Film)

adamscovellMarch 20, 2013April 20, 20262 Comments

Film

Screen-Next-The-Sea Film Festival – Kevin Brownlow Lecture.

While journeying down for a short trip away to the secluded vistas of the Norfolk broads, little was I aware that the weekend away was to allow for a lecture and a personal chat with one of this writer’s heroes. The brilliant thing about north Norfolk in general is that, in just about every field whether it be art, film or even food, it has … Continue reading Screen-Next-The-Sea Film Festival – Kevin Brownlow Lecture.

adamscovellMarch 15, 2013April 20, 2026Leave a comment

Film

Derek Jarman And The Music Video.

The constructs that delineate a difference between short films and music videos has been fuelled by debate and value judgements by those after a perfect set of rules. Acclaimed director Derek Jarman didn’t seem too fussed about these connotations when creating his short films and music videos often blurring the line between the two and questioning whether the line even existed through explicit highlighting of … Continue reading Derek Jarman And The Music Video.

adamscovellMarch 8, 2013July 11, 2013Leave a comment

Film, Film Music and Sound

Berberian Sound Studio – Sound And Music As Narrative (Part 1)

Introduction Peter Strickland’s 2012 film Berberian Sound Studio is the first popular film quite possibly since Stanley Donan’s Singing In The Rain (1952)[i], to focus its narrative around sound as a concept in cinema. As a visual medium, sound and music is often taken for granted; an assumed norm of film since the 1930s that has a texture of interweaved sound and music that can … Continue reading Berberian Sound Studio – Sound And Music As Narrative (Part 1)

adamscovellMarch 1, 2013April 20, 20264 Comments

Film

The Old Dark House (1932) – Symbolism, Class and Taboo (James Whale).

Contains spoilers. Hindsight can be a terrible burden to approach an older film with; lagging hard on the back of the viewer whose inability to contextualise what they’re seeing disengages their perception. When watching James Whale’s The Old Dark House (1932), it could be tempting to accuse the film of being full to the brim with stock horror clichés. Yet Whale’s film is special and … Continue reading The Old Dark House (1932) – Symbolism, Class and Taboo (James Whale).

adamscovellFebruary 21, 2013April 20, 20267 Comments

Film

Martin – George A. Romero (1976)

In vampire films of the past, the mere label of the main villain as a vampire or a child of the night, almost justifies and forgives their actions. When Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee have to seduce in order to attain for their nightly fix of blood, the label of vampire forgives their action as a necessity just as if the person was a mere … Continue reading Martin – George A. Romero (1976)

adamscovellFebruary 12, 2013April 20, 20263 Comments

Film, Film Music and Sound

The Harp And The Sound Of Snow – Citizen Kane, Lost Horizon and Ikiru.

The use of harp in film scores has gained a number of clichéd uses over the years. It can be seen as the most typical of ways to introduce dream sequences, even in more adventurous visual forms of dreams such as in Hitchcock’s Spellbound (1954) (score by Miklós Rózsa) or can be used as a leitmotif for harmony, paradise and utopia which also handily connects … Continue reading The Harp And The Sound Of Snow – Citizen Kane, Lost Horizon and Ikiru.

adamscovellFebruary 8, 2013April 20, 2026Leave a comment

Film, Film Music and Sound

Silence as Resistance – Le Silence De La Mer (Jean-Pierre Melville)

It is an oft stated belief that silence is the most powerful effect in the canon of film sound techniques and tricks; a seemingly obvious nod to the lack of music to the lead the viewer emotionally and also a gentle nudge at the general over abundance of non-diegetic score in film. One of the most stark and allegorical uses of silence can be found … Continue reading Silence as Resistance – Le Silence De La Mer (Jean-Pierre Melville)

adamscovellFebruary 5, 2013April 20, 20262 Comments